THE 
RURAL- NEW-YORKER, 
National Journal for Country and Suburban Homes, 
Conducted by 
1C I. B SB X S . CARMAN. 
Address 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER, 
No. St Park Row, New York. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1S86. 
By request of the Editor of the R. N.- 
Y., Henry Stewart will next week begin a 
short series of articles, entitled “The 
Dark Side of Farming.” 
In one row of blackberries, we have the 
Early Harvest, Taylor’s Prolific and Early 
Cluster. The last (at this time, June 3d I 
bears the most blossoms—Taylor’s next 
and Early Harvest last. The Early Har¬ 
vest was'more injured by the past Wiuter 
than we had supposed. 
We have this season 60 different kinds 
of strawberries, as stated, growing at 
the Rural Grounds. Our first lot of ripe 
fruit was picked from Iron-Clad June 3. 
The berries are variable in size and shape, 
but firm aud of good quality. The plants 
are moderately vigorous. 
The pear Duval (Beurre Duval) illus¬ 
trated on page 383, was sent to us by 
Gen. Noble, of Connecticut late last Fall. 
It is a Belgian pear, named after the origi¬ 
nator. The tree is vigorous and produc¬ 
tive. The fruit is from medium to large; 
skin yellow, dull brown in the sun, with 
patches of russet and many brown dots. 
The flesh is nearly -white, juicy, melting, 
sweet and agreeable. Its season is Octo¬ 
ber. 
When corn sets appear, cut out all bar¬ 
ren stalks—those which have no sets— 
and feed them to the farm animals. These 
barren stalks all bear tassels, and these, 
just the same as the fertile sta.Ks, mature 
pollen which is wafted all over the 
field to mate, so to speak, with females 
which would otherwise be impregnated 
with pollen from ear-!-earing stalks. In 
this way the fruitfulness of our corn 
fields is reduced. If not practicable to 
cut off the tassels of all the barren stalks 
in a given field, try it upon a part of the 
field, and from this the seed corn may be 
selected for another year. For ten years 
past we have raised a plot of corn, about a 
twentieth of an acre in area, for the pur¬ 
pose of ascertaining to what extent proli¬ 
ficacy can be increased by such means. 
Those who visit the Rural Grounds this 
Summer may see the results. 
The American Nurserymen’s Associa¬ 
tion needs an energetic man for its Secre¬ 
tary; one who is filled with an apprecia¬ 
tion of the good the society can accomplish 
other than as a mere organization for the 
sale of nursery stock. We want the 
society to be a body that will benefit the 
public as well as the trade. The office of 
Secretary entails an immense amount of 
work, and as the pay is trifling, it is hard 
to select the right, man who would be 
willing to accept of the position. It has 
been suggested to us that Mr. Herbert 
My rick. Editor of the Farm and Home, a 
young man of good executive ability, un¬ 
tiring energy, and well fitted for the work 
by education and taste, would be the right 
man. We hope the position will be ten¬ 
dered to Mm, and that in view of the 
value of the services he is capable of ren¬ 
dering, he will accept it. 
Every farmer should know enough about 
politics to protect his interests. There is 
no reason why professional politicians 
should have a monopoly of the business. 
Steal the doctor’s business by regarding 
the laws of health. Drive the lawyers 
out of business by thinking a dozen times 
before you go to law. Starve the poli¬ 
ticians into some honest work by thinking 
and acting for yourself. Attend all 
primaries, and do your best to send hon¬ 
est men to represent you. - It often hap¬ 
pens that one vote at a caucus is worth a 
dozen at the general election. Whenever 
voters get careless and negligent, crime 
is sure to creep into office. 'The people 
wait in silence for a time and then rouse, 
with a mighty effort, and clean the pub¬ 
lic service. Then after a short period of 
watchfulness they grow easy again, and 
the same story is repeated. Let every 
fanner become a politician on a small scale; 
know what is going on; keep informed. 
When a candidate comes about smiling 
and shaking hands, don’t let him take you 
by the nose and lead you up to the ballot 
box. He will do it if he can. Understand 
him, and he never will dare to do it. 
HOW BEST TO TREAT THE POTA¬ 
TO BEETLE. 
Again some writers are talking of the 
economy of hand-picking potato beetles. 
“If this is well attended to, there will be 
no eggs deposited on the leaves.” they 
say. " Do they write from experience, or 
do they write such stuff because it seems 
plausible. Years ago, we diligently pick¬ 
ed off and lolled, once every day, every 
potato beetle to be seen on a patch 300 
feet square, and yet there were, so far as 
could be judged, just as many eggs de¬ 
posited and hatched as if this tedious 
work had never been done; while the soil 
between the rows was kept hard by be¬ 
ing walked over so often. The fact is 
that the beetles are to be found in every 
crack of the soil, under little clods and 
stones, about the stems and creeping every- 
where. One may pick off all the beetles 
from the plants at 10 o’clock, and at 11 
they will be as thick as ever. Hand pick¬ 
ing destroys just so many beetles certainly 
and there are just so many less; but it is 
like removing a mound of earth pebble 
by pebble, or emptying a tub of water 
drop by drop. The work has no apprec¬ 
iable effect. We have tried every method 
of killing potato beetles. For one entire 
seasouwe tried London-purple, but found 
that if applied the least bit too strong, it 
would injure the foliage, Paris-green 
and water is also injurious to the foliage, 
because the water collects wherever the 
leaf will hold it, and evaporates, leaving a 
film of Paris-green. We now use pure 
Paris-green and plaster—one pound to a 
barrel of plaster-—and see that it is thor¬ 
oughly mixed with rake and hoe. The 
first application is made as soon as the 
plants get well out of the ground, and 
the second, when the beetles begin to de¬ 
posit their eggs, and the third, when the 
grubs make their appearance. A fourth 
application is not needed for early pota¬ 
toes. 
PROGRESS OF THE RYE-WHEAT 
PLANTS. 
Tiie development of the Rural’s rye- 
wheat hybrids is far more curious and in¬ 
teresting this season than in any previous 
year. Those plants which “most resem¬ 
bled rye,” as we have designated them, 
have hitherto varied to a trifling extent 
as compared with the others, which resem¬ 
bled wheat more than rye. We selected 
the best beads of the former, as already 
stated, and planted them in a plot of 
about one-twentieth of an acre. The 
heads in shape were rather narrow, taper¬ 
ing, half-bearded—the tops of the stalks 
of all were downy. It is a matter of very 
great surprise to us that in this plot there 
is such a variety of heads that if evidence 
were suddenly placed before us that all of 
the varieties of wheat in cultivation sprang 
from accidental crosses between rye and 
wheat, we should accept it as in harmony 
with the appearance of these plants. The 
down does not appear upon the culms of 
some, while others are covered more thickly 
than the parent stems. Some of the heads 
are beardless, others as much bearded as 
barley. Some beads are of the shape of 
Clawson, or the female parent, Armstrong; 
others are club-headed, with and without 
beards. Our readers must remember that 
this twentieth of an acre of plants, so 
strangely dissimilar, all originated from a 
ningh need —one of the ten kernels which 
four years ago was the result of crossing 
rye upon wheat. The three-quarters rye- 
wheal- plants (the cross made last year by 
again using rye pollen upon these hybrids) 
all differ from one another. There are 14 
plants. We shall select some of the best 
heads and again attempt to cross it with 
rye, which, if successful, will make the 
progeny seven-eighths rye. If, as judged 
bv appearances, we were finally to pro¬ 
duce rye plants by the continued use of 
rye pollen, would this prove that wheat 
and rye were of the same origin? 
CAN WHEATS CROSS NATURALLY? 
It has been assumed, and the writer 
was one to do so, that wheats naturally 
are invariably self-fertilizing; that the 
pollen of the three anthers is shed upon 
the feathery stigma before the anthers 
push their way between the close-fitting 
palets or envelops. That. thiRis general¬ 
ly the fact, there can be no doubt. Two 
years ago we first noticed that these palets 
gaped open in exceptional cases before the 
anthers had burst, and the present season 
we have spent a good deal of time in ob¬ 
serving how often and why this occurs. 
Now and then the top of a spike of wheat 
will get caught in the sheath or “boot.” 
The head or spike is then bent over— 
sometimes nearly double—and the flowers 
are sometimes twisted or bent apart. In¬ 
sects or birds in some cases in jure a flower 
so that the sexual organs are exposed. 
Again, a flower will gape open without any 
cause whatever, that the writer can dis¬ 
cover. Some of our rye-wheat hybrids 
have been and are virtually sterile. 
Nearly all the flowers open their mouths 
(so to speak) wide, as if, in their sterility, 
they were praying for aid to perpetuate 
their kind. In all these cases (except the 
impotent hybrids) the pollen ripens as 
usual, and 99 times in 100 is shed upon 
the pistils of the open flower. Still, it is 
conceivable that foreign pollen might be 
carried by the wind or insects and effect 
crosses. We are just as positive that such 
instances rarely occur as that, their occur¬ 
ence is pomhle. The chances of natural 
crosses are perhaps the same as those of a 
given house being struck by lightning. 
This subject has its practical value. Wc 
often hear of a new variety having been 
found in a field of Clawson, Diehl or 
Mediterranean. Nineteen times out of 30, 
such novelties prove to be old varieties 
well known in England, Germany, Russia 
or elsewhere. But in the twentieth case, 
the new kind may prove a true, natural 
cross-bred wheat. 
“OLEO” IN THE SENATE. 
The Oleomargarine Bill passed the 
House on Thursday by a vote of 177 to 99. 
The party division was: ayes, Democrats, 
81; Republicans, 96; nays, Democrats, 
84; Republicans, 15. The votes from the 
New England States were 17 for and 4 
against the bill. In the Middle States New 
York gave 20 yeas, and 7 nays; New 
Jersey, 4 yeas, 3 nays; Pennsylvania, 30 
yeas, 4 nays; Delaware, 1 yea; Maryland, 
3 yeas; total, 48 yeas and 13 nays. The 
Southern States, including Kentucky 
and West Virginia, gave 21 yeas and 66 
nays. The Pacific States gave 7 yeas and 
1 nay. The Western States, including 
Missouri, were the chief supporters of the 
bill, giving 84 yeas and 15 nays. The tax 
was reduced from 10 to 5 cents per pound, 
and the provision giving a moiety of the 
fine to the informer was stricken out; 
otherwise the bill remains the same as 
epitomized by us. Its fate in the Senate 
will depend chiefly on the committee to 
which it may be “referred.” If referred 
to the Finance Committee as a revenue 
measure, it is thought, it will be pigeon¬ 
holed; if to the Agricultural Committee, 
it will certainly be favorably reported, 
and if the producers and eaters of genuine 
butter act energetically it will probably 
pass. But will the President sigu it? 
One point about the bill should not be 
overlooked. It has served to illustrate 
the possible strength of the farmers of 
this country as nothing has ever done be¬ 
fore, Petitions and resolutions by the 
thousand have been poured in upon Con¬ 
gress and many a vote has been influenced 
by this popular demonstration. For years 
it has been considered the thing to ad¬ 
vise farmers to “combine” and to de¬ 
mand their rights. The loudest shouters 
have verv carefully neglected to inform 
the public how these “combinations” 
were to be made. To our mind the recent 
postal bill and the present oleomargarine 
bill have given farmers the most practi¬ 
cal chance of asserting their rights that 
they have bad in years. City Congress¬ 
men can afford to snap their fingers at 
the petitions of farmers, but the great 
majority of our legislators are created by 
farmers’ votes, and they have common 
sense enough to understand it. For this 
reason we advised every cow owner and 
every butter eater to take a hand in the 
“oleo” discussion. We are glad to see 
that our remarks were so well heeded. 
Let the good work continue. Your 
Congressmen is not a bigger man than 
you are—vou made him. We are getting 
into practice, friends, and “ practice makes 
perfect,” 
OUR SCHOOLS. 
In many places, much dissatisfaction 
exists with the present system of public 
education. Tn too many country school 
districts the course of education is almost 
a farce. A new teacher comes with every 
term, the school officials take little or no 
interest in the school, and the ill-feeling 
and animosity that exist, between various 
families in the district are brought into the 
school-room. These failures should not be. 
The country school ought to do better 
work than the city school. In good districts 
where sensible and liberal-minded men are- 
put on the school board, and where rill take 
an interest, a school is maintained that is 
a credit to the community. Such a school 
not'only^tends to [create' a sound public 
sentiment, but it enhances the value of 
property. The old practice of electing 
the last man to move into th« neighbor¬ 
hood. to any vacant position on the school 
board, is still in vogue in many districts, 
and a more ridiculous proceeding is hard 
to imagine. Too manv of our town and 
city schools fall into the management of 
politicians, and favoritism is rampant in 
the selection of teachers. The average 
country teacher works simply to secure 
his wages. Unless he is watched and 
directed, there will be few grains of wis¬ 
dom for the pupils. The average city 
teacher is generally a person who would 
be a most complete failure in any other 
branch of business. He seems to go upon 
the principle that alibis pupils arc to be¬ 
come teachers. In fact, he is only cap¬ 
able of teaching his t rade just ns the carpen¬ 
ter and the blacksmith would teach their 
trades. It is beginning to be generally 
felt bv all, except professional teachers, 
that there are too much system and form 
and worthless routine about the common 
school education. This fact is evidenced 
by the fact that in all large places private, 
schools arc increasing in size and number. 
Manv practical people are in favor of con¬ 
ducting our city schools in connection 
with workshops or places where pupils 
could learn the rudiments of business. 
The design is to shorten the hours of 
study, and put more time to practical 
work. It is justly claimed that the 
average workman seldom receives an 
adequate return for the time spent at 
school in studying geography or “lan¬ 
guage.” When so many millions are de¬ 
voted each year to the canoe of education, 
it may he well to see if this education 
cannot be improved upon. Country 
schools can be tlie most easily and quickly 
improved of any. Every resident of a dis¬ 
trict should feel an interest in school mat¬ 
ters, and do hisbest, to rectify existing evils. 
BREVITIES. 
Our first, ripe strawberries for this season 
were found upon the Iron-clad. But there are 
better kinds. 
A farmer near the Rural’s Ex. Grounds, 
has lost 130 chicks out of 150 with gapes. Ho 
can’t account for it. 
Ttte Convention of the American Nursery¬ 
men’s Association will be held in Washington, 
D. C„ June 10-18, inclusive. 
TnERE are this season 06 different kinds of 
new strawberries growing at. the Rural 
Grounds. We have land ns many as 110. 
Never before have potatoes at this day 
(June 1st) been so far ndvaneed. The season 
lias been vpry favorable. Tlie experiments 
with different chemical fertilizers and all sorts 
of combinations thereof promise to confirm 
the interesting results of two years ago. 
The Baneor Blackberry (newt a semi-recum¬ 
bent variety, Is blooming freelv from spring- 
set plants. The Karbari. Raspberry, the 
plants set in November of last vear are full of 
sets. We are in hopes this variety, for which 
so much has been claimed, will not disappoint 
those who purchase it. 
The summer meeting of the Michigan State 
Horticultural Society will convene at 
Tansing, on the evenin'-' of June 15. at 7:30— 
headquarters Hudson House. The topics to 
be considered will cover small fruits. The 
meeting will continue through the next day, 
closing with nil evening session. 
Readers of the Rural will recall that we 
have repeatedly ami earnestly tried to guard 
them against selecting the Norway Spruce 
and Balsam Fir for their lawns or farms. Prof. 
Sargent savs.and we have no better authority, 
that “the Norway Spruce, in spite of its early 
promise, must be acknowledged to be a com¬ 
plete failure in Eastern America.” And the 
Balsam is worse. 
After all. the worst of the striped melon 
beetle is that it lays its eggs upon the stems of 
melons, squashes. cucumbers, etc., and the 
grub which hatches out eats into the stems 
and our plantsall at, oneedic, Nothing better 
than pouring a small quantity of the kerosene 
emulsion about the stems of the plants to keep 
the beetles away,has been devised. 
A ritbsuribeu favors us with the following 
remarkable bit of rhyme: 
•O say do vou uro t>y l lie dawn’s early light. 
The crow In the corn field nppcnrlng. 
Where the » tre worm ha* been gnawing through the 
long gttllvnight. 
And the gopher his head Is nprenrlng: 
While the chipmunk comes out from the old'rotten 
stumps 
And the cut-worms so festive the blades area-climbing. 
And the blackbirds all gathered In the poplars near 
bv. 
n-hunger their notes are n-ehlmlngt 
Yet In Autumn the corn Ftnlk In triumph shall wave. 
O’er till- field of the free, aud the land or the hrave." 
A COTTON-PICKER lias at last been invented 
which appeal's to promise fair results. It is in 
the form of a bulky box filled with revolving 
spindles or picker stems. The machine is 
driven direct!v over the rows, and the lint 
patches upon the spindles, and is thus drawn 
from the stalks. It is thought that some 75 
per cent., of the lint can la 1 thus gathered; 
what remains on the stalks must, of course, b® 
picked by hand. A successful cotton-picking 
machine means a revolution in cotton culture 
at the South. At present the planter is at the 
mercy of his laborers. With a successful 
picker the work could lie brought into the 
hands of a few trusty workmen. Quicker and 
more economical methods of planting and cul¬ 
tivating tlie crop will be adopted. The vast 
army of negroes arid poor whites who now 
live on the cotton fit-ids «will he forced out of 
employment, and made to adopt, some” other 
work uud|n more diversified farming system. 
